Although it is after Miami the largest cruise port in Florida it has never settled on a name and there will be forever the confusion if the cruise is leaving from Fort Lauderdale or Port Everglades. To make things even more complicated, the police cars and boats you see in the port are from Broward Country thus adding a 3rd entity to the equation. We officially dock in Port Everglades but as the name says, it is on the port. Fort Lauderdale is the larger town/city nearby with the airport. As people fly to Fort Lauderdale the name became synonymous with the place /port from where the ships were leaving. The fact that we see Broward Country Police around shows again the fact that Port Everglades is too small to have its own police force and thus it relies on the County with its Sherriff. Fort Lauderdale has its own police department but I have not seen their cars very often in the port area. The big boss is a sheriff, although I doubt that he will be riding on a horse. The Everglades are full of swamps and those and horses do not go well together. Alligators like horses, horses do not alligators nor mud.
When we docked this morning, the whole ship had to chance to see the Sheriff’s department in action when they made way onto the pier for the emergency services. One of our guests needed a medical disembarkation, luckily not life threatening and the police were there to get them to the ship. Protocol demands that the fire brigade shows up as well as they have the first line Paramedics, followed by the Ambulance. As it was non-life threatening they boarded together and I could watch a nice parade of life saving professionals coming on board. A guy with the emergency Bag, two guys with the stretcher, A guy with a laptop = the record keeper, and another gent and lady as support troops.
I saw it all first hand as I was at the gangway awaiting our school class. Together with Ch. Eng. Willem Dullaert (Ret.) we received them at the gangway, deviated them out of the throng of boarding crew, and parked them in our training room. After an initial introduction it turned out that Breakfast was very high on the Agenda and thus their first impression of a cruise ships was: piles of food. Something sounds familiar there. This was followed by the Safety Indoctrination for all new embarking crew which is done by the Human Resources Manager.
I lost them there as I had to present myself as “down liner” to CBP. This is something new which has thus far only surfaced in Fort Lauderdale. It pertains to Repair men, Travelling Trainers and everybody else who joins a cruise ship in a Non-American port, while the ship is on a round trip from and to an American port. With the Noordam on a 10 day loop from Fort Lauderdale and me having joined in Willemstad, I fitted the description perfectly. They call such a person a down liner and he has to be processed separately from the rest of the world. As this is a fairly new phenomena, the way a down liner is handled still varies a bit. First I had to get off the ship before everybody else, e.g. at 07.00 hrs. and then wait for the ZERO count but it was changed to going off together with the CVG guests. Those are the guests who are in transit. They assemble near the end of the disembarkation process in the showroom at sea and then “march” in unison to the CBP stand in the terminal. Once all are processed, the ZERO count = empty ship should have been achieved, and then they can “march” in unison back on board again. This time it looked like a real invasion with scooters speeding ahead as spearheading tanks, followed by a 2nd wave of wheel chairs and the regular infantry bringing up the rear. It is a very efficient and customer friendly way to do it, but it was quite funny to see a huddle of 200+ cruise guests scampering through the nearly empty customs hall by various modes of transport. But the 10.30 reporting time suited me very well, so hurrah for the CBP. 
Today we will leave at 16.00 hrs. for an 11 day cruise to the South East Caribbean with a farthest point the island of Barbados. Weather for the coming days; Sunny but breezy.
March 9, 2015 at 7:20 pm
Well done to the Broward Country Police and other law enforcement at Port Everglades, I think they do a great job keeping everything moving and at the same time secure in such a busy port! When I was there in January the officer supervising traffic at Terminal 25 looked out for our shuttle and made sure were got connected.
March 10, 2015 at 12:48 am
It is common across the USA for villages, towns and cities to contract for police services with the local Sheriff’s Department.
Greg Hayden
March 10, 2015 at 8:12 pm
thank you,
I did not know that. I am used to Europe where each city or county has its own police force (Although Holland is going national now)
and the government simply assigned who looked after whom and where.
thank you for reading my blog.
Captain Albert
March 10, 2015 at 4:18 pm
Thank you for explaining the many kinds and sorts of policing powers in the State of Florida, Captain! It’s becoming quite confusing here on the West coast with public transportation police forces and volunteer policing troops.
My street has a regular daily race down to ‘The Park’ between the fire trucks and the ambulances. Usually two at a time. No Sheriff in sight here, though.
I was pleasantly surprised how a scooter brigade on board our mid-size HAL ship could get around without knocking over pedestrians in the narrow hallways on my cruise of last Fall with, apparently, the highest number of seniors on any cruise present.
Thank you for brightening up my day, Captain!
March 10, 2015 at 5:22 pm
intersting – in England and europe – emergency services are different – example normally you won’t see firefighters for medical emergency in UK – this is various across europe- also in england – if person falls ill when cruise ship is docked – normally ambulance is called but emergency doctor might be called as well also with port secuirty team – i seen once at Dover
March 11, 2015 at 1:26 am
My wife and I will depart on the Maasdam on 27 Mar for a three week back-to-back cruise to the Western and Eastern Caribbean. That means that we w ill be part of the CVG group with me pushing my wife in her wheelchair. We enjoy your blog and have enjoyed sailing with you as Captain.
March 11, 2015 at 7:38 pm
Capt Albert: I really enjoyed your humorous account of the “downliner” process. Sorry about the inconveniences, but nevertheless your description is both very funny and informative.
Thanx as always for your blog…..Ruud Hartog (in Tierra Verde FL, apparently you have multiple “Ruuds” following your blogs.
March 13, 2015 at 7:59 pm
Fantastic Blog, Captain Albert…..thank you for all the fantastic writing. Being married to a writer, & with her first book coming out shortly, we appreciate your great writing…and we surely love the creativity that you bring to the HAL site. Holland America is the creme of the creme when it comes to sailing and we cannot wait to board, and experience it all. Soon.
We will be joining the NOORDAM 3/20 in Fll to Aruba for a glorious, relaxing 10 day vacation visiting all new islands that we have never seen before, except HMC which we loved. What art treasures will we find aboard? What wonders does the Noordam have to show us?
Where will we find the Wall of Fame showcasing all of Noordams accolades and plaques & awards.? One of our favorite areas of the ship….see you onboard.
Bon Voyage